Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro both received a bit of a facelift just in time for the Christmas holidays. Slimmer, lighter (0.95” when closed), and more powerful than before, the now eco-friendly notebooks are machined out of a single piece of aluminum which lessens production waste and just adds to the overall coolness. The displays are now LED-backlit giving them uniform brightness and reducing their energy consumption.

Beyond the green modifications, the touchpads for both MacBooks are larger and support multi-touch. Toss in a more powerful video card and it’s hard to go elsewhere when considering a laptop purchase.

Apple is threatening to terminate its iTunes service if the Copyright Royalty Board increases publisher compensation to 15 cents per digital download. The National Music Publisher Association is seeking a bigger share for its members after the expiration of the 10-year agreement that pegged royalty rates at 9 cents. 

If the rate hike passes and record labels do not absorb the premium, Apple contends that their service will steep into unprofitability which clearly is not cool for Steve Jobs and crew. Well, why not raise prices? Apple is convinced that their 99 cent flat pricing scheme is a large part of their service’s allure. Though it’s a nominal difference of 6 cents, 99¢ compared to $1.05 is a considerably different price point in the minds of consumers. Though their per-sale revenue will increase, the volume of sales will likely decrease which will send their break-even business into the red. Also likely is that the measure will have the counterproductive effect of sending consumers back to peer-to-peer communities for pirated music.

The Board will reach a decision later today. We’ll see what happens. 

This years MacWorld seems to have kicked off at a higher note. Despite the main focus being the MacBook Air, Apple unleashed another amazing product, the ‘Apple Time Capsule.’ It will be released on February 1st, although you can pre-order it now at Amazon. The time capsule works wirelessly with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard. It can back-up and store files for each leopard based Mac on your wireless network, and with it’s 500GB or 1TB hard drive you will have all the capacity and safety you need. 

The Time Capsule also works with PCs, it will mount as a wireless hard drive, so windows users can simply access the Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily. The Time Capsule is also a full-featured 802.11n Wi-Fi base station. Every computer in your house can work off a wireless network at blazing speeds. And they can back up wirelessly to the same Time Capsule.

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At this year’s MacWorld, some people were expecting that Steve Jobs would unleash an ‘iPhone nano,’ but he instead unleashed something way better than the famous iPhone ‘brick.’ The ‘MacBook Air’ is being dubbed the world thinnest laptop; measuring 0.16-0.76 inches and weighing 3.0 pounds.

Other features include: a LED backlit 13.3 inch screen, a multi-touch trackpad, 5hours of battery life, 2GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive with an optional 64GB SSD (Solid State Drive), 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth capabilities, iSight camera, and optional Super Drive for $100.00 (or you can use the new Remote Disk feature and share with an optical drive of a nearby PC or Mac. Price $1,800 

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Yesterday at a special event dubbed ‘The Beat Goes On’ Apple unleashed three new iPod models, launched the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for both iPod and iPhone together with Starbucks, iPhone ringtones were also added to iTunes, and (Product) Red iPod shuffle, new colors for the shuffle was also part of the news, But the good news to the customers came today. After Steve Jobs had announced a price cut $200 on the iPhone yesterday (8GB iPhone $399 and the 4GB iPhone $299 while supplies last). Today he announced that Apple will issue a $100 in-store credit to all iPhone users who paid full price for the product. (talk about fixing a backlash!). The new iPod models include: iPod nano 3rd generation, iPod Classic, and iPod touch.

The iPod Touch to be honest with you I don’t know what it is really? But it’s thinner than the iPhone, much more solid and it’s all chrome. Available in 8GB & 16GB for $299 and $399 respectively. More info>>>

The iPod Classic is hard-drive based, it’s thin and solid. Available in 80GB & (a thicker) 160GB models. So if you are planning a trip to the Amazon forest or an appearance on the next ‘Survivor reality show,’ the Classic is ideal for you, it has enough music for the jungle. More info>>>  

The iPod nano 3rd generation is extra small, with a video. Men personally I prefer the looks of 2nd generation nano, this new gadget has a  2-inch, QVGA, 320 x 240 screens which are 65-percent brighter than previous models and have the highest pixel density apple has ever unleashed (204 pixels per inch). Prices will be $149, and $199 for the 4GB & 8GB respectively. More info>>>